"Your family's circumstances are no secret," Gregory continued, his voice gentle enough to make the words all the more vicious. "Nor is it a secret that my father was willing to offer a solution when others were reluctant to involve themselves. I should have thought that such generosity would have earned him—and, by extension, our family—a little more respect."
A murmur travelled through the gathering.
Penelope could not tell whether it was agreement or merely the discomfort of people who knew he had gone too far but preferred not to say so.
She only knew that several faces had turned towards her with renewed interest, and that one elderly lady was looking at her with the kind of pity Penelope found more difficult to bear than contempt.
Gregory had found the one subject she could not easily defend without exposing the very desperation she had spent months trying to conceal.
